How the Church Can Welcome Singles—and Help Them Thrive
Did you know that today there are more single adults than married adults in America? The tipping point came in 2014.
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Did you know that today there are more single adults than married adults in America? The tipping point came in 2014.
It was a cold January day in Colorado and the world was covered in white from the morning’s snowfall. It looked like a snow globe had been unleashed. The clouds had parted and it was starting to clear, so I decided to take a walk.
Goodbye darkness, hello light! It's a fresh start in your heart, too, as breakup pain is fading and hope is waking up.
After the sun has set on your relationship, and you've gone through the darkest time, you're farther along the heart healing journey. It's nearly Dawn.
If you've ever gone through a relationship breakup, you've probably heard something like this...
Years ago, I was talking with a guy friend (let's call him Mitch). I was going through a heart-wrenching breakup at the time and I decided to ask him for his best advice on how to deal with it.
Chad was a laid-back guy who liked the outdoors and spent a lot of time hiking and mountain biking. One summer day we took a late afternoon walk together in a wooded area. I was so engaged in our conversation that I hadn’t noticed it was getting dark.
When I was a teenager, my dating advisors were people I'd never met. I was eager to learn about love and romance—and I didn't really have any other input in this area—so I'd voraciously read the "do and don't" lists in women's magazines and listen closely to the words of nearly every love song on the radio so I could find out who I was supposed to be and how I was supposed to act with the opposite sex.
It is a mystery and a miracle how two people ever get together and stay together. Why is real and lasting love so hard to find? Perhaps it has something to do with how we handle emotional intimacy, that is, how comfortable we are with getting close to another person—or not.
Many people enter into toxic relationships, from friendships to dating, and even marriage. Often, they live in fear, feeling like they have to constantly perform to be accepted. Pastor Michael Todd, author of Relationship Goals: How to Win at Dating, Marriage, and Sex, reminds us that our Savior loves us so much that He paid the ultimate price to redeem us. Pastor Todd says that once people comprehend the depth of that undeserved love, then they can understand that they don't deserve to be treated poorly. In other words, grasping our vertical relationship with God helps keep our horizontal relationships in proper perspective.



